Personal Trainer Singapore – Coach Jonathan Wong

Ok, many of my Singapore personal training and fitness boot camp clients as me if fruit juice is ok for them to drink… I mean, fruits are healthy right? so why not just juice them and get all their goodness… and as an added benefit you can have so many fruits in one glass… my answer (after a short chuckle)…NO, No, NOOOO…unless you want to get fat, diabetic and brain damaged!

Clients come to me to lose weight, burn fat, get healthy and improve their performance and strength… so of course NO is the answer.

Pretty Nice Ads, Pretty Ugly Results

Why?

Firstly fruit juice is high in sugar and low in fiber (even the most organic, healthy ones) – that means that it’s just as bad as any other processed and overly sweetened cola or syrup based drink. Almost nobody can get a healthy and lean physique drinking those… and nobody can get a great physique drinking fruit juice either.

It combines all the “bad parts” of fruit – the high sugar, concentrates it and gives you many servings of this in 1 glass – it takes several apples (4-5) to make 1 glass of apple juice. When was the last time you ate 5 apples in one sitting? Thats the amount of sugar you are taking in!

It takes away the good stuff – the skins and fiber in fruits is gone! These actually slow digestion if you eat the whole fruit. That makes the impact of the sugar less on your body when it is digested slowly and released slowly into the body.

Most fruit juices in coffee shops and hawker centers are “enhanced” with sugar syrup – oops thats not in real fruit!

Finally fruit juice commercial production is EVIL. Fruits are very heavily sprayed with poisons to protect them from bugs (its actually because the soil they are grown in is so bad that artificial fertilizers are used which do not provide the plant the nutrients to be healthy and have its OWN defense against bugs – thus pesticides are needed)…

Do you think fruits are lovingly plucked and gently squeezed one by one to make juice? Of course not. They are crushed by the thousands, skin and rind and all and the juices drained out. Oops some pesticide is left on the skin… oops… its in your juice.

Most pesticides are nervous system and brain toxic. That is BAD.

I prefer to have full nerve function and brain function. I prefer to be lean and healthy. I don’t drink fruit juice!  And any Singapore personal trainer who knows his/her nutrition facts won’t tell you to either.

I know that we need about 8-12 servings of fruits and veggies to stay healthy, alkalanize our body, and get a  wide spectrum of anti-oxidants. That is why I use a organic veggie and fruit extract that keeps the nutrients but does not give us the high sugar content. I also use a variety of organic fibers to keep the digestive tract healthy. We used to be able to get great nutrition from fruits… but fruit today is not what it used to be – its low in nutrients, genetically modified to be sweet, and covered in pesticides… we should all use a greens/fruit supplement and a fiber to stay healthy. Contact us to see if we have any in stock so you can get the nutrition your body needs to maximize its potential.

I have been away from home for 11 days! Every day is 10 hours of lectures and training. Specialized training for stressed people, ladies, children and how to heal back injuries. Coming up over the next 7 days – nutrition and detox, anatomy and power training

Am doing my best every night in the hotel with revising and reviewing my (so far) 25000 words of notes. Coming back soon with better knowledge and ability to help clients. I look forward to it!

Learning From Coach Poliquin How To Treat A Forearm And Elbow Problem

I will be away for more than 2 weeks starting tomorrow. I will be another set of 25-30 hour trips to the Rhode Island where the temperature is currently -2 to -8 deg C… I’m not even sure I have the right clothes for this! But its ok:) all for the love of knowledge.

There will be a series of seminars about various topics.

• Training of special warfare guys like body guards and commandos (and learning the best methods for handling shift work!)
• Special considerations for training females
• Special considerations for training kids
• Developing power for sports
• Healing back injuries FAST (80% of people will have back pain some time in their life)
• Training Busy Executives (lots of these in Singapore!)
• Anatomy
• How to do better nutrition consultations.

Do I think I’m currently BAD at these things… probably not… but these courses are taught by various instructors who are at the top of their field in the world! So I know I have much to learn. Braving the cold will be a small price to pay.

This is why the clients in our fitness training, performance training and Singapore fitness bootcamps get such great results (check out the mens and womens testimonial page or the video on my Singapore personal trainer homepage).

Study, experience and practice.Put them together and you get results!

Unfortunately most personal trainers in Singapore work with only a few clients at a time. But at my center, my staff and I work with over 160 clients at one time. We have their nutrition information, their flexibility and body fat measurements, their health indicators and their training program logs. This means we know with great certainty what works and what does not.

Eat as you please... they are great for you

Many of my personal training and fitness bootcamp clients ask “how many eggs can I eat each day?” This is a good question because eggs are affordable, versatile as a food, and very importantly… YUMMY!

Myth 1: They are high in cholesterol – true… However cholesterol in iteslf is not bad. Without cholesterol you would … die. It is the building block of vitamins, hormones and cells. Your body is so dependent on cholesterol that each of your cells can produce some of its own. Eating more or less of it doesn’t affect you much. Short version: Eating cholesterol has nothing to do with your blood cholesterol. (more on cholesterol in a future post).

Myth 2: They are high in fat – ALSO true! But eating fat and less refined starches makes our body fat adapted and that means we burn fat for fuel. And that means you will burn your own body fat sooner! – Just because your body is better at using fat as fuel (a safe and efficient source I might add…)

Eggs are created as an excellent food source. Eat them whole. The yolk has many nutrients and in fact, the fat content of the yolk slows digestion of the entire egg to make it less blood sugar spiking. That means less likely to store as fat! People who eat egg whites alone are more likely to get fat. (nobody comes to my personal training center or joins our bootcamp fitness class to get fat!)

Finally, the ONLY reason you would not eat eggs is if you have an allergy or sensitivity to them. If you eat eggs then feel bloated, or have lower energy about an hour later, then eggs are not good for you and should be avoided.

If you are not allergic, eggs are great and eat them as you please!

Disturbing news from Time magazine last week! In an article called “Exercise does not make you thin”, there is this author who has this “special” idea that exercise makes you fatter.

WHOA!! Maybe I’m in the wrong industry If I want to help people! Seriously, I earn a living helping people lose weight, get lean and strong, get the physique they want, get into the best possible health and perform to the best of their ability! None of these things require “more fat” and if exercise makes us fat, then I should be asking all my clients to do as little exercise as possible.

Now there is scientific basis for this article as I wrote about in my previous article on the topic of fat loss and exercise.

In fact there is another study I just came across from the University of Oklahoma which came to exactly the same conclusion. I.e. 10 weeks of proper exercise had no effect on fat loss (only about 1kg of fat was lost on average!).

So… it seems this article has some merit!

Time to look for another job Coach Jon… you just spent 3 months (10-12 weeks as demonstrated in the studies) of all your client’s time, effort and money for what is in effect the same scam as any slimming center or infomercial product!

We better stop teaching clients to exercise...you know...in case they get fat!

NOT SO FAST!!

Just because the author of the article spends many hours each week exercising (and even getting a personal trainer to help him!) without getting results – doesn’t mean that he is doing it right.

The article mentions nothing about the role of eating correctly for burning fat. In fact it says that exercise makes you hungrier and you end up eating more. For example after exercise that burns 300 calories, you feel like eating a piece of cake that has 500 poor quality, fat storing, no-nutrient calories in it… YES that is true. And if you keep doing something as foolish as that – exercise will make you fat!

But exercise has so many benefits that it would be totally outrageous to stop.

• Maintaining strength, power and muscle at all ages and especially as we get old. This is a key determinant of happiness, independence and quality of life of senior citizens.
• Fitness in both the short and long duration energy systems (aerobic and anerobic) that mean life becomes easier
• It improves brain function, and happiness. My sister can attest to this! She is a therapist in the area of mental health and exercise is the BEST modality that is non invasive, drug free and has no side effects.
• It prevents age related disease like osteoporosis.
• It builds muscle mass which has direct co-relation to the strength of our immune system. (You don’t fall sick)
• It makes us look good! Yes, there I said it. If you just diet yourself till you are thin you will be weak, sickly and unattractive because you will be “skinny-fat”.
• The list really does go on and on…

So we can’t afford to ditch exercise (especially proper exercise that is the stuff we do in our personal training and fitness boot camp programs).

If there is a member of the media in Singapore who is having trouble with their tummy fat like this Time magazine author is, I would invite them to participate in our Singapore fitness boot camp. Along with our nutritional coaching.

If they did that for 12 weeks, irresponsible articles like this would never be published and I would never need to quit my awesome job of helping people in Singapore burn fat and get strong!

A few days ago there were a few articles on “Today” paper and Channel news asia (here is the online article) about the “evils” of low carbohydrate diets. They are simply incorrect.

Here are my thoughts…and what I wrote about in my reply to them.

“It’s a shame that there are so many myths about what kind of diet is best for health, many consumers get so confused.”

Ok for some people, but not for others

“My role as a fitness expert is to help as many people as possible to achieve their health and fitness goals by helping them prevent disease, live long and be productive each and every day”

In this article (“Noodles? Yes, please!” TODAY Newspaper, Singapore Jul 14 2009) it is mentioned that low carb diets cause side effects such as fatigue, poor concentration, and dizziness, as well as bad breath. And that low carb diets only result in water loss rather than actual weight loss.

In reality, the side effects are temporary and minor. And the benefits of stable blood sugar and reduced insulin response are major for those with weight problems.

Fatigue, concentration, dizziness and bad breath only happen is a small percentage of people and only when they are transitioning their body from using carbs, to using fat for fuel. This usually lasts only a few days and if done under the care of a fitness professional, are totally safe and not serious. Bad breath can be helped by some simple sugar free mints.
Coach Wong explains how it is not about low carb diets being good or bad.

“I am not a low carbohydrate supporter”. I am a “correct” carbohydrate supporter. We help over 300 clients per year with personal nutrition and training plans at the Genesis Performance Center.

Some of our clients like eat less than 40g of carbohydrates per day and get great results. Others are on food plans where they take in more than 400g of carbohydrates per day and this is optimal for them.

The timing and type of carbohydrate also matter alot. A banana eaten after a hard training session is totally different from a plate of noodles eaten at lunch time.

This is because there is a large genetic difference in our ability to use carbohydrates efficiently and our nutrition plans need to account for those differences.

That is also why there are so many different kinds of diets and diet books. The zone, protein power, atkins etc. They all work for different people but none of them work for everybody. We are all different.

In our center we use a special method of measuring body fat that can help us determine what kind of nutrition plan is best for this client at this point in their life and at their current level of body fat.

“It is not ideal for everybody to go on a low carbohydrate diet, but on the other hand it is not responsible for health professionals to recommend high carbohydrate low fat diets for general health because alot of people will get less healthy doing that. Diet needs to be customized for current fitness levels, genetics and ethnicity.”

Join our personal training program to get your exercise and diet customized for you.

Most personal trainers in Singapore simply take a client through a fixed circuit of machine exercises that are the same for each client.This is a great way to earn a quick buck off an unsuspecting client. – NOT Good

Most fitness bootcamps in Singapore simply get a bunch of people to run or jump around in an open field or park without care about long term progress and excellence. This is a great way to injure a person who has not trained in a long while. – NOT Good

But the ONE thing most lacking from most Singapore personal training or fitness/weight loss boot camp programs is doing nutritional guidance the right way.

One benefit that my staff and I have is that we have more than 200 clients in our facility each year. And we track each and every one of them. Measurements, genetic tolerances, fat levels, and each and every weight that they lifted! So we have a huge database of information about what works and what doesn’t.

For example, one of our clients was doing alot of things right, training hard, high level of activity (he does martial arts on non-gym days) and is a motivated client. BUT he was not losing fat at the rate that he should have been.

But -BOOM- once we changed his nutrition to something that suits his particular genetics, and cut out one or two foods that did not suit his genes, he dropped 2.5% bodyfat in 10 days – that about 5-10mm on each bodyfat site.

Another lady had problems with her upper body fat. Her legs looked great and athletic but her upper body was stagnant even tho she ate healthy food most of the time. For her she needed a particular supplement because her family eats NO red meat, and for her, L-carnitine was a very useful thing to boost her fat loss results.

(For both these clients we used biosignature to help them get results)

As you can see, diet troubleshooting is not a simple matter of “calories in-calories out”. (Subject for another LONG post) it is a matter of balance and individualization especially for those who have plateaued.

Meanwhile what are the general guidelines?

If you are fat – i.e. can’t see your abs (guy) or don’t have a firm stomach (ladies), I use the following nutritional guidelines.

• No starches
• Green veggies unlimited
• Un-processed meat unlimited
• Nuts 2 handfuls per day for medium/large men (70kg+) and 1 handful per day for women and smaller guys.
• Fish Oil – 1g per day per % of bodyfat you are
• Cheat meals – 1 per week – But you can test 2-3 (on the same day) to see if you can tolerate it.
• Post workout shake is protein + glutamine + glycine
• Drink water and unsugared tea.

Here is a picture of me after a 4 week holiday + reservist + little training and horrible army food. No carbs for you fat boy!

If you are lean – can see abs (guys) can see line down the middle of your tummy (ladies)

This is a picture of me 12 weeks later – Carbs will help me stay LEANER

You actually need starches. Start adding them post workout. And see if you get fatter (you should probably get LEANER because you prevent the body from using precious protein as a fuel), if you don’t get fatter, add them to your solid meal post workout too, then breakfast. More on training days less on non training days.

The rest of the plan remains the same except that you should take a cheat meal probably midweek, and your post workout shake should have some carbs instead of glutamine (glycine remains).

I actually just made this transition (I have a basketball tournament coming up and want to be leaner) – it happens at about 10 % bodyfat for guys and 16% for women.

The “fat person” plan is usually called a “cyclic ketogenic diet” and the “lean person” plan is usually called “carbohydrate cycling”.

There are man other factors to consider. But consistently do the first things first, and most of you will already get significant results.

But of course if you want an experienced eye to help you adjust weekly/monthly exactly what you should be doing according to precise measurements and tracking – that is what our personal training programs are for – results results results!

This picture (or one similar) of the food pyramid is found in the canteens of all schools and many other “health conscious” organizations in Singapore.

If you have taken note of the current state of health of our population and the kind of decline we are in, we can see that it’s NOT WORKING.

IT'S BROKEN AND HAS GOT TO GO

Why?

First we need to take a look at the origins of the food pyramid. It is designed and “researched” by the US Department of Agriculture. Hmm… that means corn producing farmers, hmmm of course they want us to eat 6-11 servings of starch per day.

From my experience with about 200 clients per year at the Genesis Performance Center, I believe that only about 20-30% of us can handle that amount of starch safely, and only 5% of us can handle that amount of starch beneficially. For the rest of us, 6-11!! servings of starch would make us FAT. Unless we were national athletes who train 6 hours per day.

The food pyramid is also Fat Phobic. Don’t be afraid to eat fat. As long as its not evil trans fat, its fine for you.

The only good thing is that the Food Pyramid suggests we eat quite a few veggies and fruits.

Ok, I’m not one to make complaints without giving suggestions. So…

If I were the Singapore Minister Of Health, my dietary guidelines would be…

• Eat protein at every meal as much as you like
• Eat veggies at every meal as much as you like
• Fat from natural sources (meat, nuts, fish oils)
• Eat fruits 2-3 servings per day
• Eat starch (rice, noodles, bread – anything that’s not green or meat) only if you have just had a bout of vigorous physical activity.

That’s it. No calorie counting, no counting carbs/protein or fat, simple and doable. Watch Singapore’s health care costs DROP as we get leaner, stronger and healthier.

Trans fat is everywhere and you know its bad for you. Not even a gram is acceptable because your body can’t process it.

Scary thought is that the FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to declare trans fat less than 0.5g per serving. So if you eat 10 servings of 0.4g of trans fat foods, you will get 4g of trans fat while “thinking” you get 0.

Another scary thing is that trans fat is VERY close (several molecules away) from PLASTIC. That makes the story above not a surprise at all.

If you eat trans fat foods – you might as well the plastic packaging as well!

cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, margarine, french fries… you get the idea!

Trans fat is everywhere and you know its bad for you. Not even a gram is acceptable because your body can’t process it.

Scary thought is that the FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to declare trans fat less than 0.5g per serving. So if you eat 10 servings of 0.4g of trans fat foods, you will get 4g of trans fat while “thinking” you get 0.

Another scary thing is that trans fat is VERY close (several molecules away) from PLASTIC. That makes the story above not a surprise at all.

If you eat trans fat foods – you might as well the plastic packaging as well!
cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, margarine, french fries… you get the idea!

Trans Fat REALLY messes up your brain, your cell membranes, makes you fatter due to insulin resistance, and makes it harder to get lean!

The history of trans fat is also scary. The formula for hydrogenating liquid, non-animal fats into solids was developed in Germany. Heat, metal catalyst, pressure and hydrogen turns a liquid plant fat into a solid. And the main use of this was to make…

CANDLES!!…@#%!@#%!@#%

Candles...Yummy!

Proctor and Gamble took over this patent but sadly, electricity was invented! So the candle market became smaller so they decided… oops, if people are not going to burn this fat, they might as well EAT IT!

Think about that before you choose another piece of food with hydrogenated fat!

BTW this kind of unnatural fat STINKS without the extra processing it is put through. That should give us some clue that it is bad fo us to eat eh…